The UFC annouced some 3 days ago that Weidman will be facing Machida at UFC 173, 24 May. These are my thoughts: Weidman, will nulify the strike/counterstrike game Machida normally excels at due to his 4 reach advantage. This means that Machida will have to move a good deal more to counterstrike and that will negate the speed advantage. (Weidman is fast, but Machida is faster). Machida will have to make up for the reach disadvantage, but in doing so that might make him easier to take down. Weidman has a superior take down game (heck even 50% take down over 2 fights vs. Anderson Silva, who many people consider to have outstanding take down defense). This ground and pound favors Weidman and I daresay the age gap will factor the most here when the ground and pound occurs. A very valid counter-argument is the Machida/Jones fight were Machida did well at stopping Jones takedowns, but the difference for me is that Weidman is more of a game-plan guy than Jones, so the very approach is different and his adjustments are very quick. I dont see Machida as having any superiority in strength either, so if/when it does end up on the ground, the advantage is more than slight for Weidman. Ultimately Weidman, who dominated every round he fought against Silva in their 2 fights, will do the same against Machida. Ill offer up a guess that in the 3rd round, Weidmans pounding seriously hurts Machida and the ref will stop it, TKO.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 13:55:11 +0000